MOURNING: Several murders in blood-spilling Easter season
Monitor Team

CONFESSED: Kulwande
MOURNING: Several murders in blood-
Mayuge, Bushenyi, Kibaale, Mbarara
In a season when Christians celebrate the end of death and re-birth of life that Easter embodies, locals in different parts of the country were mourning lives abruptly ended by gruesome murders.
The most grisly of the murders happened in Mayuge District where Police on Friday arrested a 55-year-old self-proclaimed born-again Christian who confessed to killing the mother of his 12 children. He alleged that she had been committing adultery and denying him sex.
Tom Kulwande, a resident of Bukagabo Village in Malongo Sub-county confessed to Police that he slaughtered his wife Alice Tibitondwa, 50, due to frustrations caused by her randy behaviour.
I first strangled her with a rope. Then I slaughtered her using a kitchen knife until she died because she has been going about with other men but denying me sex, he said.
Kulwande, who belongs to Bukagabo Universal Apostles Fellowship Church of Righteousness, said he had on three occasions caught his wife having sex with other men.
He added that on each occasion, he reported the matter to his pastor and then pardoned his wife with the hope that she would change.
I thought she would one day change and treat me like a man but in vain, Kulwande told the police.

He revealed that after killing his wife, he tried to hang himself in the house but the rope snapped. He then woke up his children and informed them that thugs had broken into the house and killed their mother.
Thirteen-year-old Sarah Tulirwa, one of the children, said, Dad left us alone in the house with the body of our mother in a pool of blood and went out to inform neighbours.

Tulirwa said there had been constant quarrels the previous nights between her parents.
Mother wanted to leave us and go to her parents sometime back but dad refused and hid her clothes, she said.

Residents wanted to lynch Kulwande after his confession but Police intervened and whisked him off to Bugade Police station. The suspect was later transferred to Mayuge for further interrogation. TRAGIC: The body of Alice Tibitondwa is loaded onto a Police pick-up over the weekend. She was reportedly killed by her husband who accused her of infidelity. The couple had 12 children. PHOTO BY FRED SIMINYU

In Bushenyi District, a 28-year-old man attacked his step-mother and her three children with a machete (panga), allegedly cutting all four to pieces.
Police in Bushenyi said Mr Christopher Tumwesigye, a fishmonger and son of Mr Nuweromu Gerikakye attacked members of his family at about 8am yesterday, shortly after his father had left for church.

Mr Tumwesigye, whose family home is in Kizigo village, Ryeru Sub-county in Bunyaruguru, allegedly chopped his step-mother, Grace Nuwamanya and her children; Deus Kakuru, Catherine Nyakato, and Caroline Nyamwiza. All died on the spot.

After the incident, Mr Tumwesigye is said to have abandoned the blood-stained panga and taken to his heels. Residents later found the four bodies lying in the compound and immediately started a man-hunt for the suspect.

Eyewitnesses told Daily Monitor that the suspect ran towards Lake Kigezi. The Southwestern Police spokesperson, Ms Polly Namaye, said Police had joined the manhunt.
Ms Namaye said the murder resulted from a family feud over land.
After the death of his mother, Tumwesigye demanded part of the property which the father complied to, she said.
Mr Tumwesigye is, however, said to have sold his share of the land in order to raise money for his fishing business. But after losing most of his money due to poor fish harvests, Tumwesigye is said to have sent messages demanding for more land.

When his father declined to honour his request, the latter descended on his step-mother and brothers, who he allegedly viewed as the major stumbling block.
Two other murders were reported in Kibaale District on the eve of the Easter season. Police said the two separate incidents happened on Good Friday.

Detective Michael Ogwal said in one incident, a 30-year-old boda boda cyclist was stabbed to death by his son in Kagadi Town Council over a land dispute. Mr Ogwal identified the deceased as Peter Kiyaga, a resident of Kagadi Town, Kibaale District, and the son only as Kidde.
Investigations indicate that the relationship between the two had got strained after Mr Kiyaga declined to offer his son a plot of land he had requested for.

On the fateful day, Kidde is said to have asked his father for Shs500 to buy waragi. When he refused, the son allegedly picked a knife and stabbed his father.

In another incident, unknown people on Friday night lynched a suspected thief in Kyomukama ward of Kagadi Town Council. Mr Ogwal said Anatoli Kirigawijo, was attacked and assaulted by a mob at about 8pm